14 DAY TRIAL // In the past few months we have seen an impressive number of 3D capable laptops, most of them going for the active shutter glasses and Nvidia, or AMD, discrete graphics combo, but MSI decided to do things a lot more differently with their FR600 3D, coming in with passive glasses and Intel integrated graphics, off all things.
Judging by the MSI's approach you surely figured it out by now that we are dealing with an entry-level solution, meant to bring 3D to even lower price points, although I am not quite sure what kind of 3D effect you will get from such a low-tech solution, passive glasses being well known for their limited 3D viewing angles.
This is only part of the problem since the integrated Intel graphics solution, chosen by MSI, is like adding insult to injury, limiting your 3D experience to movies, 3D gaming not being possible with such low performance graphics.
Moving over past the whole 3D aspect, we find that the FR600 3D comes with a low-res 15.6" HD LED backlight display, Intel Core i5 processors, up to 8GB or DDR3 memory as well as a DVD Super Multi and a maximum of 640GB of storage space.
Other features include 802.11 b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR and Gigabit LAN connectivity, the FR600 3D also coming with an HDMI output as well as an eSATA port and a 4-in-1 card reader.
Its multimedia features are completed by a 720p webcam and THX TruStudio Pro sound, MSI joining forces with Creative in order to develop the 4 channel speaker system used in the FR600 3D.
Unfortunately, pricing has not been revealed yet, but I would expect this notebook to come pretty cheaply since those passive 3D shutter glasses and Intel HD graphics don't add that much to the overall build cost.
Whatever it may end up being priced at, one thing is certain though: If you're really interested in 3D do yourself a favor and go with an active shutter glasses, discrete graphics packing notebook, the MSI FR600 3D being just a quick solution to capitalize on the whole 3D hype.